Serbia U21 v Macedonia U21 Betting Tips: Macedonians too big in the betting

With the first round of fixtures now done and dusted, it’s safe to say that both Serbia and Macedonia are well and truly on the back foot in Group B. With Portugal and Spain winning first up, it’s looks as though this pair are destined for an early exit.

Even though they face an uphill struggle, both will be keen to atone for their first match disappointments and, considering their opponents here also lost, both will fancy their chances.

Of the two, although it was Macedonia who came off worse numerically, it was Serbia who disappointed the most on match-day one as they slumped to defeat against Portugal without ever really putting up a fight. They may well have had plenty of possession but with it they failed to threaten throughout which, in all honesty, allowed the Portuguese to cruise. With this in mind, it’s quite surprising to find them as heavy odds-on favourites ahead of this match. It is of course only one game, but does their performance last time out justify this price-tag? Definitely not.

Macedonia might have shipped five against an extremely clinical Spanish outfit, but they certainly had their moments and, if it wasn’t for both the woodwork and the sharp reactions of Kepa Arrizabalaga in goal, they would’ve walked away with a bit more to show for their efforts. Even so, despite this loss, there are plenty of reasons for the Macedonians to feel upbeat ahead of this one and so, at the prices, they’re the team to side with. ‘Macedonia +1 Handicap’ and ‘Macedonia Draw No Bet’ are the two angles of attack.

A scoreline of 5-0 suggests nothing other than a walk in the park for the winning side but, although Spain clearly were a cut above in terms of sheer volume of talent, that wasn’t the case. In taking no less than 24 shots – almost double that of Spain – Macedonia showed no hesitation to get forward and were certainly unlucky not to benefit from doing so. Could you say the same for Serbia against Portugal? Again, definitely not.

It’s also worth remembering that prior to their defeat against Spain, Macedonia had kept five consecutive clean sheets as they won five on the spin – against Bulgaria Montenegro, Scotland (x2) and Northern Ireland – so they’re certainly no strangers to defending well against teams who don’t belong in the top bracket, and from what we saw on match-day one, Serbia belong nowhere near it.

It could be a case of the Serbians performing better as favourites against a team they’re seemingly expected to beat but they really didn’t create a favourable impression first time up and are no true 4/6 shot, that’s for sure. Even when allowed to press and get into good positions last time out, they looked void of both direction and attacking intent. The fact that they managed just two shots on target, the first of which didn’t arrive until the 55th minute, says it all really.

In contrast, this young Macedonian side enjoyed plenty of good spells against the Spanish and were looking to get on the front foot right from the off. Such a willingness to have a go and make things happen was encouraging, and so, against a side who possess far less quality, such tactics could easily pay dividends. At the prices, Serbia shouldn’t be touched while Macedonia look far too big and are thus worth supporting.

More U21 tips can be found here.